Pearl Lee – Endeavour 43

SV (Sailing Vessel) Pearl Lee is a 1981 Endeavour 43 Ketch designed by Robert Johnson. We found her in Canada near Windsor, Ontario, and fell in love with her layout above and below deck. After several weekends trying to get her ready we made the 750 mile trip home along the Great Lakes. Due to her age and American origin, importation was no problem at all, thanks in no small part to very helpful officer at Drummond Island.

Endeavour 43

We are the third owners of this particular boat and SV Pearl Lee was once a hurricane rescue boat, so has newer Klacko masts and booms, an upgraded Perkins 4.236 engine and Onan generator, and Harken roller furler. She has two private staterooms, each with a private head (toilet) and shower. She’s 43 feet long on deck, plus bowsprit and dinghy davits, 14 feet wide, weighs 33,000 pounds empty and needs 5’3″ of water to float. Her main mast towers 60 feet above the water. With 200 gallons of water and 150 gallons of fuel she is built for extended cruising.

From Kristi: She is named Pearl Lee after Tom’s mom who was a very stoic woman that complained about nothing despite having cancer for the second time when we lost her. She had to have her pacemaker removed for radiation with the second round of cancer and that slowed her down immensely yet she never complained nor asked for help. We moved Pearl in with us about 3 weeks before she died and I became her sole care taker. She had a few strokes making verbalizing some words impossible, like Kristi, and she would ask Tom, “where’s my Chi Chi?”, so Chi Chi became my name. After Pearl’s death, we began looking at boats, found the Endeavour and fell in love with her. Tom suggested we name her “As You Wish” (something he says to me often) and I suggested “Pearl Lee”. It stuck & I cannot imagine a better name. We like to think that she’s watching and smiling at our adventures. I will probably name the dinghy “Chi Chi”.

Follow along as we repair, restore and modify her to make her our floating home.